Skin And Bones
by lolitarun
Summary: Blaine's done something he isn't proud of.  Something that caused Kurt to break up with him.  But when he unexpectedly ends up at McKinley for Senior Year, can the two boys work things out and get along?
1. New Kid

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing!

**A/n: So this has been kind of chilling out on my computer for a while now, waiting for me to do something with it. I randomly found this earlier today while I was trying to clean up my folders and decided that I should actually do something with this.**

Blaine Anderson didn't recognize the face he saw in the mirror anymore. The contacts were gone, as was the hair gel that he'd used every day at Dalton. He'd let his hair grow out over the summer so that it was actually curly, and it hung down to the point that it would have covered the collar of his blazer. If he'd still had to wear his Dalton blazer, anyway. The black wire frames of his glasses made him look older than before, as did the dark circles that had formed under his eyes. His face was thinner and paler than it had been before, although that was primarily thanks to having spent the last week of July in the hospital having his appendix taken out. He was still sore, but he didn't want to miss the first day of school. It was going to be awkward enough being the new kid on his first day of senior year; the last thing he really wanted was to be obvious about the fact that he was new by showing up a day or two late.

"You don't have to go in today. I'm sure they'll excuse you for a few days, until you're feeling better." Blaine looked away from the mirror, forcing a smile for his grandmother's benefit.

"I'm fine, Gamma."

"If you start feeling sick, just call me and I'll come pick you up. If you're going to go, I'm going to drive you."

"I have a car…" Blaine began.

"And you had surgery less than three weeks ago. Not to mention the near-death experience of actually having your appendix rupture. You haven't been cleared to drive yet, and you aren't riding the bus," his grandmother replied, putting a hand on his shoulder and guiding him towards the door. "Get your bag, breakfast is on the table. We need to leave soon for school since you're insisting on going."

Blaine was careful to throw his messenger bag across the opposite side of his body; if he'd worn it the same way as always, the strap would have pressed against the incision on his stomach in an uncomfortable way. He glanced in the full-length mirror again, before he realized that he sort of looked like he was trying to be one of the Jonas brothers – he had a gray v-neck tee on underneath a black wool vest, with skinny jeans and a pair of black leather flip-flops. The only thing that didn't really work with the outfit was the brown leather of his messenger bag, but that couldn't be changed. He'd had the bag since his freshman year, and he didn't really want something different. It was almost comforting to have something so familiar with him.

Blaine had every intention of hurrying down the stairs, until he remembered that going up and down the stairs was still uncomfortable. The movement tugged on the scar tissue on his abdomen, and even though the stitches were gone it still felt as if he was going to tear the incision open again. He dropped his bag in one of the chairs at the kitchen table before sitting in his usual place so that he could eat something. The combination of nerves and the recent surgery affected his appetite, and not in a good way. Blaine only got through half a piece of toast before he couldn't force any more down.

"You need to eat more than that if you're going to school today." Blaine shrugged at his grandfather's words.

"I'm just not hungry. Nerves," Blaine explained.

"I'm just going on record as saying I don't think this is a good idea. You're still moving pretty slowly, and kids are kind of rough…"

"I'll be fine, Pops… if I start feeling bad I'll call."

"Just stay home one more day, Blaine. Get some more rest."

"I've been doing nothing but rest since I got out of the hospital over a week ago. It's bad enough that I'm going to a new school… showing up after the first day of the semester would just make it worse."

"You could always go back to Dalton. Next week. The account your father left has more than enough to pay your tuition, and he said that if you want to go back he'll transfer more for you," his grandfather commented. Blaine shook his head, sighing.

"I can't go back, Pops. I need to do this… McKinley's going to be more like the real world than Dalton will ever be, and I need to get used to it. I have to get used to a whole lot of ugly coming at me from a never-ending parade of stupid." Blaine smiled as his grandfather laughed at the reference to _Hairspray_. At least his family understood his slight obsession with Broadway musicals and therefore recognized the random references he occasionally used.

"Just don't let their ignorance get to you… you're a strong kid, but you aren't going to last if you let a bunch of stupid kids who don't know any better mess with your head."

"I know, Pops."

"We'd better go, Blaine. You don't want to be late."

The car ride from his grandparents' house to McKinley wasn't long, even with morning traffic. He bit his lip as they pulled into the line of other parents dropping off their kids. "Remember, if you start feeling sick or too tired, just call me and I'll come pick you up."

"I will, Gamma."

"Have a good day, sweetheart." Blaine opened the door and got out, wincing as he heard the car behind them start to honk because he was moving too slowly. He lifted his bag onto his left shoulder, waving briefly to his grandmother as he walked towards the building. He remembered where the office was from the day he and his father had visited the school to make sure he was enrolled, right before his father had left for Dubai and he'd ended up in the hospital with appendicitis.

Blaine's schedule was waiting for him in the office, as was a map of the school that the secretary kindly highlighted to show him roughly where all of his classes were taking place. Once he had the map it was fairly easy for him to find his way to his economics class, but finding a seat proved to be difficult. He'd been given a late slip in the office because it had taken the secretary a little while to get everything organized and help him; the warning bell had already rung before he'd gotten out to the hallway.

"Take a seat, Mr. Anderson. I was just about to start passing out textbooks." Blaine nodded, taking the syllabus that the teacher handed to him and making his way to the only available seat in the room – dead center on the front row. Not exactly where Blaine would have chosen, but better than being stuck in the back corner.

"You feeling alright? You look a little pale, dude." Blaine glanced at the other person sharing his table, smiling slightly as he recognized the face.

"I'm fine, Puck. Just not feeling so hot at the moment." Blaine watched as the boy's face contorted in confusion for a moment before he realized who Blaine was.

"Wait… what are you doing at McKinley, Prep School?"

"I go here now. It was sort of a last-minute thing…" Blaine glanced down at the paper the teacher had given him, hoping Puck wouldn't ask the one question that Blaine knew was probably going to come.

"Does Kurt know you're here?" Blaine sighed, closing his eyes before he shook his head.

"Kurt and I haven't spoken since June. He… we needed some time apart." Blaine reached up and pushed some of his curls back behind one of his ears to get them out of his face.

"Wait… you two are broken up?" Blaine nodded. "So I guess I'm not going to be able to talk you into auditioning for New Directions, am I?"

"I don't know if Kurt would be okay with me being in glee club. He sort of made it clear that he didn't want anything to do with me for a while."

"What the hell did you do?" Puck asked. He looked pretty pissed off at the thought that Blaine might have actually done something that would have hurt Kurt.

"It's a long story… I don't think we have time for me to explain something like that right now."


	2. Confrontation

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing!

**A/n: And I wrote two chapters of this before I uploaded. I just got going and… well, I didn't really want to stop my roll to upload!**

Economics didn't seem as though it was going to be too difficult of a class, but sitting next to Noah Puckerman for the rest of the year probably wasn't going to be all that fun. Especially once Puck knew what was going on between Blaine and Kurt.

"Holy shit, Prep School… what happened to you?" Blaine glanced up as he heard a somewhat familiar voice. Not to mention that only a select few members of New Directions would actually call him that. He smiled slightly at Santana.

"Combination of a bad breakup and a ruptured appendix." Blaine held his econ textbook protectively over the lower part of his stomach as he walked down the hall, using it as a shield to protect himself from any of the other students. He hadn't realized just how wild other teenagers could be in the halls, and he was starting to think that his grandparents might have been right in telling him that he should stay home a little while longer.

"Wait… you and Hummel broke up?" Blaine nodded in response to the question. "How is it that I'm the last one to know about this?"

"You probably aren't… Puck apparently didn't know, either. Although I'm surprised Kurt hasn't told everyone about it."

"Kurt barely spoke to anyone all summer. We all just assumed he was driving out to Westerville to hang out with you and some of your other Warbler buddies all the time," Santana replied. Blaine shrugged.

"I guess I really fucked up big time…"

"What did you do?" Blaine glanced at Santana, noting the way she raised one of her eyebrows questioningly.

"Promise you aren't going to kill me?"

"I'm not making any promises." Blaine sighed, shaking his head. She looked pissed off, not a good sign.

"I got drunk… did some things I shouldn't. Ended up waking up next to a guy I may or may not have slept with. I blacked out so I don't have any idea what I did," Blaine replied.

"And Kurt knows this because…"

"He was there for part of it. It was at David's graduation party… Kurt had to leave early, but I was planning on staying the night. He was kind of pissed off at me by the time he left, and I kept drinking…"

"You told him the rest?" Santana asked.

"David filled in some details, but I told him what I remembered."

"Bad move, Prep School."

"I didn't have a choice. He asked… I couldn't lie to him." Blaine glanced down at the map in his hand. "I have to get to class."

"I guess I'll be seeing you in glee club?"

"I don't know if that's such a good idea…"

"Of course it's a good idea… Kurt will deal with it. And everyone wants to see someone other than Rachel doing solos. You've got the voice to give her a run for her money." Blaine shrugged.

"We'll see. Like I said, I've got to get to French." Blaine walked away down the hall, keeping his head down as much as possible. He wasn't looking forward to the prospect of seeing Kurt. But Blaine wasn't lucky enough to avoid his ex; as soon as he walked into the classroom he came face to face with the boy. He should have known that McKinley would only have one AP French class.

"What are you doing here?" Blaine sighed as he saw the pain in Kurt's eyes.

"I'm living with my grandparents… my dad got transferred to Dubai last month."

"You could have gone back to Dalton. You didn't have to come here." Blaine shook his head.

"I couldn't go back. I'd already decided to leave and go back to public school… I couldn't back down from that. I need to do this." Blaine watched as Kurt crossed his arms.

"Just stay away from me." Blaine nodded sadly. He hadn't expected Kurt to still be so upset with him.

Blaine waited for Kurt to choose a seat and then sat as far away from the younger boy as possible. He wasn't going to push his luck; Blaine knew better than to ignore what Kurt told him to do in this particular situation.

The class was fairly boring for Blaine; it was conducted entirely in French, but Blaine had a fairly easy time understanding the teacher from his years of intensive French classes at Dalton. Blaine had a feeling that this particular class was going to be a piece of cake.

Blaine winced as he bumped up against the table as he got out of his seat after the bell rang. He purposely glanced down at his schedule and map, waiting for Kurt to leave the room. As soon as the boy was gone, Blaine made his way out of the room and off towards his AP English class. Blaine just had to hope that Kurt wouldn't be in any of his other classes.

English went by quickly, with only Artie Abrams sharing the class with Blaine. It was followed by AP Calculus, which surprisingly enough didn't include any of the members of New Directions (at least as far as Blaine could tell). By lunch, Blaine was already exhausted. Part of him wanted to go home and forget the rest of the day, but another part of him knew that he really didn't need to miss his classes if he could help it. So he suffered through his biology class, doing his best to keep himself awake and avoid the glares he kept getting from Finn and Quinn, who were also in the class. Mike gave him a few confused looks, and Brittany seemed completely oblivious to the fact that Blaine hadn't been at McKinley the year before. To be honest, Blaine wasn't really sure how the blonde had made it to her senior year, especially given some of the things she said to him as they sat at the lab table they shared. Blaine had been assigned to be her lab partner, and he had a feeling that it was going to be a long semester.

"I'm surprised you're willing to show your face around here." Blaine glanced up from his schedule, a little surprised to see himself face to face with Lauren Zizes. "Puckerman told me that you and Kurt broke up. Satan filled in the details that Puck didn't know."

"So basically pretty much all of New Directions now knows that I may or may not have slept with another guy over the summer. Great." Blaine sighed, walking up to the locker that he had determined was his earlier and opening it to put away a couple of his books because his bag was getting heavy.

"Basically, yes. And yes, everyone who knows is pissed off at you."

"I suppose I deserve that," Blaine replied, running a hand through his hair. "I don't want any trouble… I just want to make it through senior year alive."

"Then I would suggest you stay away from Finn Hudson for a while. Apparently he heard about what happened between you and Kurt from Satan, not Kurt. And he's even more pissed than anyone else."

"Thanks for the warning… I'll keep that in mind."

"You might want to keep that in mind right now… he's headed this way. Good luck, Prep School."

Blaine turned around just in time to see Finn walking up to him. He winced as he felt the other boy's hands pushing him back against the wall of lockers. Blaine couldn't help the groan that escaped his lips as he slid down to the ground.

"What the fuck, man! Why the hell would you do that to Kurt?" Blaine couldn't form an answer; it felt like his scar had ripped open again. Tears were already starting to sting his eyes.

"Hudson! Principal's office, now!" Blaine felt someone kneeling down next to him, an arm around his shoulder.

"Are you nuts, Finn? I said I was mad at him, not that I wanted you to hurt him!"

"He hurt you!"

"That doesn't justify you pushing him into a locker!" Blaine finally glanced up, more than a little surprised to see Kurt sitting there next to him. The anger Blaine had seen in Kurt's eyes earlier that day was gone, replaced by a look of concern. "Are you okay?" Blaine reached down and gently pressed a hand against the lower part of his abdomen. It stung, but he was thankful that it didn't look like he'd actually started bleeding.

"No blood… still hurts, though."

"Why would there be blood?"

"Appendicitis… a couple of weeks ago…"

"And you came to school today? Are you mental?" Blaine winced at the slightly screechy tone of Kurt's voice. It was at least a sound of concern.

"Maybe slightly."


	3. Forgiveness

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing!

**A/n: Okay, so I wrote three chapters before I posted, not just two. I got on another streak and… well, I sort of liked where this was going.**

"You shouldn't have come to school today." Blaine opened his eyes and glanced up at the nurse, who was looking at the display of a thermometer that she had just removed from his ear. "Your grandmother should be on her way to pick you up."

"I'm fine… I can finish the day, I was just kind of sore."

"You shouldn't even be here right now, Blaine. You're going home to continue resting, and so your grandparents can keep an eye on you for the next twenty-four hours or so to make sure you're alright." Blaine sat up slowly, running a hand through his curls. "You should be laying down."

"I feel fine, really. I'd rather just go back to class…" Blaine began.

"You're not going anywhere. Just lay down and rest until your grandmother gets here." Blaine sighed. He was used to dealing with stubborn people and he knew that he wasn't going to win this fight, no matter how much he tried to argue with her. Blaine did what he was told, letting one of his arms lay across his eyes to block out the light.

"Hi Ms. McGill… is Blaine still here?" Blaine looked up, surprised to see that Kurt was standing in the front part of the nurse's office.

"You should be in class, Kurt."

"I have study hall right now. I went to school with Blaine at Dalton… I just wanted to make sure that he was okay."

"He's in the back. His grandmother should be here shortly to pick him up. Just keep it quiet." Blaine bit down on his bottom lip as Kurt came through the doorway. He wasn't really sure what to expect. He watched Kurt as the countertenor pulled a stool up near the cot.

"I didn't know you were planning on coming to McKinley this year." Blaine was sort of glad that Kurt was starting with something other than the giant white elephant in the room.

"It was sort of a last minute thing. I was supposed to be back at Ridgeview… and then my dad got transferred to Dubai at the last minute. I had to move in with my grandparents, and they live in this school district. It wasn't planned…"

"You couldn't have told me beforehand?" Kurt asked.

"When you said you didn't want to speak to me again, I took you seriously. I wasn't really thinking, anyway. My dad and I came down here to register the day before he left, and I ended up getting sick a few hours after he left the country…" Blaine stopped; he didn't really want to tell Kurt about how sick he had been. He didn't want the boy's pity.

"I'm sorry…" Blaine shook his head.

"It's not that big of a deal. I survived, I'm just still kind of tired. And sore."

"I meant about saying that I never wanted to speak to you again. It was a little harsh."

"I understand why you said it. What I did…"

"You don't even know that you did anything. I should have been glad that you even cared enough to tell me about what happened at David's party." Blaine closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm not saying that things are going to go back to the way they were… but if you'll give me your locker combination and schedule, I can bring you your books and assignments. I still remember where your grandparents live."

Blaine rolled over onto his side, flipping open the top of his bag and pulling out the paper Kurt asked for. He handed it over. "I just need that back this afternoon. And thank you, Kurt."

"It's no problem. I remember what it's like to be the new kid, to not really know anyone. Besides, I sort of feel like I owe you after what my Neanderthal of a stepbrother did earlier…" Blaine smirked slightly.

"He's just trying to be protective. It wouldn't have even hurt if I'd waited until I actually healed to come back to school…"

"That still doesn't excuse what he did. I'll talk to him, and to all of the other guys, make sure that they all know that that kind of behavior is _not_ okay." Blaine nodded. "And if you want to join New Directions… I can tell Mr. Schue that you're going to audition when you're feeling well enough to come back to school. He may not even make you audition, given the fact that he knows you have a good voice." The bell rang as soon as Kurt had finished his sentence. "I should go. Mr. Schuester doesn't like for us to be late."

Blaine watched as Kurt got up and started out of the room. "Hey, Kurt…" Blaine smiled at the boy as he stopped and turned back around. "Thanks."

* * *

><p>Kurt Hummel wasn't sure what possessed him to go to the nurse's office during his free period before glee; he hadn't spoken to Blaine in three months, but something about seeing the older boy looking so sick and in so much pain had brought back some of the feelings he'd had for the older boy during their junior year.<p>

Kurt had planned to just apologize for Finn's behavior and make sure that Blaine didn't think he'd had anything to do with that particular incident. But Blaine… Kurt couldn't stop himself from helping the older boy. Kurt couldn't even think of a reason to stay mad at Blaine when they were talking. Which was why he now found himself standing on the front porch of the Anderson house, an arm full of textbooks that he was barely managing to balance. The door eventually opened, and Kurt was more than a little surprised that Blaine's grandmother was smiling at him.

"Kurt… good to see you again. It's been a long time…"

"It's good to see you, too, Mrs. Anderson. I brought Blaine's books and assignments for him." Kurt smiled at the older woman as she took some of the books from the top of his stack.

"Come on in, dear… Blaine is upstairs in his room." Kurt shook his head.

"I can't actually stay. I have to go home and deal with my stepbrother…" Kurt began. He sighed. "I should probably apologize for Finn's behavior… he tries to be a good brother, but some times he goes a bit overboard."

"Blaine didn't actually tell me what happened…" Kurt sighed; he hadn't thought about the fact that Blaine probably wasn't going to tell his family what had happened between the two of them. "Is something wrong between the two of you? Blaine hasn't mentioned you the entire time he's been here, and I noticed that you weren't calling each other constantly like you used to…"

"We broke up. A few months ago, actually. We're working on it…" Kurt watched as the woman nodded, walking over to a table and putting down the books she had already taken. Kurt walked over and put the rest of the stack down before he pulled Blaine's schedule out of his pocket and placed it on top. "I really should go deal with Frankenteen."

"Take care of yourself, sweetheart. Hopefully we'll be seeing you around." Kurt smiled slightly and nodded.

"Hopefully." Kurt looked up as to see Blaine standing at the bottom of the stairs, smiling slightly at him. He could see the edge of a red incision peeking out above the top of the older boy's pajama pants, on the thin stretch of skin below the bottom of his tee shirt. "I'll see you at school, right?"

"I'll bring your homework tomorrow so you can keep up," Kurt replied. Blaine shook his head.

"I'll be back tomorrow." Kurt glanced in the direction of Blaine's grandmother, who was shaking her head with her arms crossed. No matter how stubborn Kurt knew Blaine could be, he also knew that the older boy wouldn't disobey his grandmother. The woman was a force to be reckoned with.

"He'll be back on Monday. And we would really appreciate it if you would bring his homework until he gets back to school."

"No problem. I'll see you tomorrow."


	4. Explanation

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing!

**A/n: And a new chapter for all of you. Sorry it took a little while; I'm having a hard time typing at the moment thanks to my own klutziness – I fell up the stairs a few nights ago, so I'm having to pretty much change how I type everything to avoid making my wrist hurt. :/**

"Sit." Kurt was a little surprised to walk into his family's living room and find Finn and his dad sitting there waiting for him. His father's tone of voice made Kurt's stomach turn; this wasn't going to be good. Kurt did what he was told, knowing that it wouldn't be a good idea to disobey. "Maybe you can explain what happened today at school." Kurt sighed, crossing his arms and shooting a death glare at Finn.

"Finn overreacted. And you'd better be planning on apologizing to Blaine… I don't care if he's my ex or not, what you did was completely uncalled for." Kurt turned back to Finn with the second sentence.

"He cheated on you!"

"What Blaine did doesn't matter, Finn. We're talking about what you did right now," Kurt replied.

"Hold on… Kurt, what is he talking about?" Kurt looked at his dad, sighing. He really hadn't planned on telling anyone in his family what happened; he'd managed to keep it quiet so far, and he wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of his father knowing that he had broken up with the curly-haired boy over something that had happened at a party that Burt Hummel technically didn't know about.

"Blaine drank a little too much at David's graduation party. He doesn't remember exactly what happened, but he woke up in bed with Aaron the next morning."

"I'm guessing that this Aaron character is also gay?"

"Bi, actually," Kurt replied. "They… they weren't completely clothed. And Aaron is kind of known for sleeping around."

"How did you hear about all of this?"

"Blaine told me about it that afternoon. And I told him that I never wanted to hear from him again."

"How did he end up at McKinley? I thought he and his father lived over near Westerville. And he hadn't even thought of leaving Dalton at the end of last school year."

"His dad got transferred to Dubai last month. And I knew Blaine was leaving Dalton – he'd made that decision before we broke up. But he was planning on going back to Ridgeview, to face his own bullies. He couldn't go to Dubai with his dad, so he ended up here in Lima with his grandparents."

"Kurt, why am I just hearing about this now?" Burt asked. Kurt shrugged. He wasn't sure exactly why he hadn't told his family about what Blaine had done. Kurt supposed that a part of him had wanted to protect the older boy from the wrath of his father and stepbrother, even though he was angry with him.

"At least you got to hear the whole story from him… I heard it from Puck and Santana!"

"Well they didn't hear it from me! I only told Mercedes, and she promised she wouldn't tell anyone," Kurt replied. "They probably heard the whole story from Blaine… I know he had economics with Puck this morning, and Santana mentioned running into him in the hall."

"How do you know his schedule?" Finn asked.

"Knowing he had econ with Puck was a matter of deduction, since he came into AP French second period with an econ book in his hand. And I got his schedule so that I could take his books and homework to him after school." Kurt watched the way Burt's eyebrows shot up. "I didn't say I was going to take him back… but I'm at least trying to be civil. The glee club could use his voice."

"No. I don't want him in New Directions…" Finn began.

"Well that's not your choice, Finn. Look, I'm the one he hurt… if I can handle it then you can, too. And if he's willing to join our glee club, I'm not going to stop him because it's what's best for the team."

"Kurt's right, Finn. I know you just want to protect your brother, but it isn't your place. And you're going to go over with Kurt tomorrow afternoon and apologize to Blaine for what you did. And Kurt… I want you to be careful. This boy has already hurt you once, and I might just kill him if he does it again." Kurt nodded.

"I didn't tell you last time because I was afraid of that. As mad as I was, I do still have feelings for him and I don't want to see him get hurt."

* * *

><p>Blaine slowly pushed himself to his feet, wincing slightly as he felt the too familiar tug against the scar from his incision. The doorbell rang as he straightened himself up; Blaine had heard the car pulling up in the driveway, and he was determined to beat his grandmother to the door because he knew it was Kurt. Even though things still weren't back to the way they had been before the summer, he did feel a lot better about their chances at a relationship after the way Kurt had behaved towards him the day before.<p>

"I've got it, Gamma… I'm pretty sure it's for me, anyway."

"You're supposed to be resting," the woman replied as he walked past her towards the front door.

"And you're supposed to not be using salt in any of your cooking because of your blood pressure. So none of us are really following doctor's orders perfectly." Blaine opened the front door, smiling at Kurt until he realized that Finn was standing there with him. "Hey."

"Sorry I'm a little late… Finn got suspended, so I had to go pick him up. He had something he wanted to say." Blaine watched as Kurt pushed Finn forward slightly, the much taller football player still staring down at the ground. "Finn?"

"I'm sorry for overreacting like that. And for pushing you. I was wrong, and I apologize." Blaine watched as Finn looked up from the ground. "But if you _ever_ do something like that again…"

"I think he gets the picture, Finn. Why don't you go wait in the car? I'm only going to be a minute." Blaine and Kurt both watched as Finn turned around and stalked back to Kurt's Navigator. "Thankfully there aren't any more books tonight. But Madame Prosser did assign a ridiculous amount of translation. Not that you'll have any problem with that, considering the fact that you were the only person to ace Monsieur Rousseau's midterm last year."

"You're still jealous about that, aren't you?" Blaine asked, smiling slightly. He and Kurt had nearly fought over that grade the year before, immediately after midterm grades had gone out.

"I'm still furious that your grade pushed down the entire curve, yes. I would have gotten an A if it wasn't for you," Kurt replied. Blaine could tell by the look on his face that Kurt wasn't being completely serious. Blaine sighed.

"Look, Kurt… I'm sorry for what I did. And I want us to be friends, at the very least. Do you think we can start there?" he asked.

The look on Kurt's face was one of the few that Blaine didn't know well enough to immediately understand. "We'll see, okay? I don't think I can promise you anything more than that right now. But we can try to be friends." Blaine took the manila envelope that Kurt held out to him with a smile.

"So if we're going to try being friends, can I have a hug at least?" The smile on Kurt's face gave Blaine the only answer he needed. The two shared a brief hug, neither of them really wanting it to end but both of them afraid to hang on too long because they didn't want the other to read too much into all of it. As soon as the hug was over, all Blaine could think about was how much he wanted Kurt back.


	5. Friends?

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing!

**A/n: So you all might hate me for this chapter. But there has to be some drama… it would be boring if there wasn't some conflict!**

Blaine bit down on his bottom lip as they drove into the car line once again. "Are you still sure you want to do this? The doctor said…"

"It's been four weeks, Gamma," Blaine interrupted. "It is possible to recover from appendicitis in three."

"But it takes longer when your appendix ruptures… you forget, I was there for that conversation, too."

"Like I said, it's been four." Blaine smiled slightly as they got to the front of the line. "I'll be fine, and I'll call if I'm not. Stop worrying."

Blaine was out of the car as soon as it was stopped, doing his best to get away before his grandmother could protest or attempt to take him home. It wasn't that difficult to get into the building before she was even out of sight, despite the large stack of books that he had to carry because Kurt had literally brought him everything out of his locker.

"Let me help you with that." Blaine was more than a little surprised by having several of his books taken out of his hands by one Rachel Berry.

"I actually had it, Rachel. But thanks…" Blaine began.

"Just trying to look out for you. We've been talking." Blaine raised an eyebrow.

"I'm assuming that by 'we' you mean the members of New Directions, since you all are the only people I know at this school."

"While some of us are still very upset over the Kurt issue – don't try to deny it, he told us everything – we are all willing to put the past in the past and extend an olive branch of sorts…"

"Rachel, if this is you trying to talk me into auditioning for New Directions, you _really_ don't have to do that. Kurt and I already talked about it… I'm coming this afternoon." Blaine glanced in Rachel's direction as they walked up to his locker and he started to open it.

"Oh. I didn't realize… I guess I just assumed that the two of you still weren't talking to one another."

"That phase of things ended about a week ago. We're trying to be friends." Blaine didn't mention the fact that he hadn't really spoken to Kurt for more than a couple of minutes at a time since the two of them had made that agreement. It was awkward for him; the year before, Blaine and Kurt had gone from complete strangers to best friends in less than two weeks. But now, even though they knew each other better than they knew just about anyone else in the world, they were barely speaking to one another even though they had agreed to attempt friendship again.

Blaine put the books he still had into the locker and took the books from Rachel to put in there as well, grabbing his French book out of the stack just in case. His econ text and all of his makeup work was already in his bag. "Well… I guess I'll see you in glee this afternoon." Blaine smiled at Rachel as she walked away, closing his locker door and heading off to econ.

The stares from Blaine's classmates were kind of annoying, although he understood. He had only been in the class for one day the previous week, and he had a feeling that no one but Puck would actually remember him having been there on the first day of classes. "How you doing, man?" Blaine was a little surprised to feel a hand clap down on his shoulder, and even more surprised to see that Puck didn't look as though he was going to

"I'm okay. Not loving being stared at because I'm the new kid, though." Blaine sat down at his desk, pulling out his textbook and the stack of homework that he needed to turn in whenever the teacher actually decided to show up.

"I wouldn't worry about that if I were you… we have a sub. Mr. Martinson is in Cleveland until Wednesday for some education conference."

"So basically I hurried through all of this work for no reason. Great." Blaine closed his eyes for a moment, sighing.

"I can't believe you actually did all of that homework. This isn't Dalton, Prep School – you don't have to actually do all of the work. Hell, I never do my homework and I've made it this far…"

"Except I have a family that expects me to go to an Ivy next year. And I won't get into one unless I pull off a perfect GPA this year because this _isn't_ Dalton," Blaine replied. He tucked the papers back into his notebook as their substitute teacher walked into the classroom. He had another week; he could just turn it in after their regular teacher came back.

Blaine didn't seem to be at all behind once the class got started, even though he'd missed several days of class. He was a little surprised; he knew, of course, that McKinley would be nothing like Dalton, but he hadn't been expecting for it to be quite so easy to keep up with the work. He'd struggled to keep up at first at Dalton because he'd transferred in from a public school – it had taken Blaine several weeks to catch up.

"Gotta love substitutes." Blaine smiled slightly at Puck's comment as the bell rang. He hurried to French, both because he wanted to turn in his homework before class started and because he wanted a chance to talk to Kurt.

There were only a couple of students in the classroom by the time Blaine got there, and he was more than a little surprised to find out that Kurt wasn't one of them. Blaine knew from his experience at Dalton that the countertenor was perpetually early – Kurt had once told him that he had an irrational fear of being late for class and getting chewed out by a teacher, even if it wasn't something that he could control that made him late.

Blaine handed the manila envelope containing his French work to the teacher just as Kurt hurried through the door. He noticed that the boy had his head down and that Kurt looked like he was on a mission. Blaine raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything because the teacher was talking to him about what he had missed in class that wasn't covered by the homework he had been given. It sounded easy enough; Blaine was starting to realize that Dalton had seriously over-prepared him for spending his senior year at a public school.

"_Comprenez-vous?_" Blaine smiled slightly at the teacher's question.

"_Oui, madame_," he replied, before he walked over to Kurt's desk. "Hey."

"Hey, Blaine." He could tell that the smile Kurt gave him was at least somewhat forced, and that concerned him at least somewhat. "Do you need something?"

"I was just coming to talk… I haven't heard from you since the other day when you and Finn came by the house…"

"I've been busy. Senior year… the workload's kind of ridiculous, you know?"

"You and I both know that McKinley is nothing like the workload at Dalton. You told me yourself that you were bored here after you left…" Blaine began. He watched as Kurt rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Blaine… did you ever think that maybe I just didn't really want to talk to you?" Blaine raised an eyebrow. "I just… I need a little more time to think, okay?" Blaine nodded.

"You couldn't have told me that a week ago?"

"I do want to be friends… I just need some more time to get over it all, okay? I'm still upset about Aaron… I don't even know for sure what you did, but it still upsets me. So it's going to take me a little while." Blaine shook his head.

"Then just tell me when you're over it. Because I don't think I can deal with faking a friendship while you figure all of this out."


	6. Audition

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing! The song here is "On a Lonely Night" by A Rocket to the Moon.

**A/n: Alright… let's see what happens when Blaine tries out for New Directions, shall we?**

Walking into glee wasn't something that Blaine looked forward to after his conversation with Kurt before French. He'd spent the lunch period with his head buried in a textbook to avoid having to talk to anyone else because the glee kids were still sort of avoiding him. He'd ended up at a table with a bunch of kids who spent the entire period playing chess and talking about things that Blaine didn't completely understand, despite his superior education.

Blaine purposely sat off a short distance away from everyone else; they all knew why he was here, and it was simply a matter of waiting on Mr. Schuester to get there. He just hoped that he could get through the audition process without forgetting what he wanted to say.

"Alright, guys… we have a new member joining us today and I'd like you to give him your attention. Blaine?"

Blaine took a deep breath, standing up and walking to the front of the room. He picked up his acoustic guitar from the top of the piano, where he had placed it before the room had filled with students. Then he sat down on the stool in the front of the room.

"Mr. Schuester, is this really necessary? We all know that Blaine is an excellent musician already…"

"I know, Rachel. But Blaine asked if he could sing for us anyway," Mr. Schuester replied. "Go ahead, Blaine." He nodded and glanced down at the guitar, putting his fingers on the strings. Blaine winced as he screwed up the first note, before taking a deep breath and starting over again, his eyes closed.

"_I was sixteen met you out in Ohio  
>You were only fifteen living life by the mile<br>We layed under the stars  
>Fell asleep in your backyard<em>

"_You said you could fly  
>But you never need to<br>Cause with us you never tried too hard  
>And you never will<em>

"_On a lonely night you will see  
>You're everything to me<br>On a lonely night oh the truth is  
>Every night is lonely without you<br>Every night is lonely without you here_

"_We are older now  
>And you came back to Ohio<br>You whispered something to me  
>I haven't heard in a while<em>

"_I wish I could lie  
>And just tell you I'm fine<br>You wouldn't believe me if you tried  
>If I listen to our song I'll be up all night<em>

"_On a lonely night you will see  
>You're everything to me<br>On a lonely night oh the truth is  
>Every night is lonely without you<br>Every night is lonely without you here_

"_It's been forever, but lately it's been hard  
>Like when we took your parent's car<br>And drove forever in the dark  
>I'd give it all away if I could I see you<br>Once again and have a summer love  
>Growing close and never go <em>

"_On a lonely night you will see  
>You're everything to me<br>On a lonely night oh the truth is  
>Every night is lonely without you<br>Every night is lonely without you here_

"_And every guy would be lonely without you there_."

Blaine spent the entire song watching his hands; he was afraid to look at Kurt, for fear that he would see something that he really didn't want. Blaine was terrified that Kurt would realize that the song was meant for him and that it would somehow piss the boy off. Given the way Kurt had reacted to his attempt at conversation earlier that day, Blaine really wasn't sure what the reaction would be.

As soon as the song ended, Blaine looked up and realized that Kurt was no longer there. He had been so wrapped up in the song that he hadn't even noticed the boy leaving the room.

"Alright, well… thank you Blaine. Finn, would you go check on Kurt, please?" Blaine watched as Finn nodded and walked out of the room. "Let's move on…"

* * *

><p>Kurt normally wasn't one who would sit on the floor of a public restroom, but he wasn't exactly sure if his feet would currently keep him standing up. "Kurt? You in here?" He looked up, sighing. "Dude… what was that? I thought you were okay with having Blaine in the glee club?"<p>

"I thought I was, too." Kurt stared straight ahead as Finn sank down to the floor next to him. "I thought I could handle all of this… that I wasn't that mad anymore."

"It sucks, doesn't it? Being cheated on, I mean." Kurt glanced up, realizing that Finn was probably the one person in his life who actually knew what was going through his head.

"I'm not even sure that he did cheat… and I'm still this upset over everything. I don't get it… he told me what he remembered, but I still can't get past the idea that he might have cheated on me. I should be happy that he was honest with me, shouldn't I?"

"I can't answer that question for you. I don't even know…" Finn commented. Kurt sighed, shaking his head. "I know I shouldn't be one to talk, since I'm the one who hit him last week. But shouldn't you at least… I dunno, figure out whether or not Blaine really did do something wrong before you decide to hate him completely?"

"I guess you're right. But even Blaine thinks he might have done something wrong… that has to count for something, that he thinks he's capable of doing something like that," Kurt replied.

"Dude… _anyone_ is capable of doing something like that. Don't you remember Rachel's party? Alcohol can make you do crazy things… sleep with people, question your sexuality over a kiss…" Kurt groaned and buried his face in his hands, remembering the incident Finn brought up when alcohol had made Blaine do some other crazy things. "Have you talked to the other guy? Aaron, or whatever his name is?"

"No… I was so pissed off at Blaine that I didn't think about asking Aaron if he remembered anything."

"Then don't you think you should give this Aaron guy a call? If he wasn't shit-faced… if he didn't black out and forget everything that happened…"

"He might clear Blaine's name."

"And then you could forgive him."

"I told him not to drink."

"But is that really worth losing him over? I mean come on… if you overlook his drunken behavior and the possibility that he might have slept with another guy, he was pretty much perfect for you." Kurt sighed, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the wall.

"Oh Gaga… what have I done?"

"It's not like you can't change things, make it right. Find out what happened, and then figure out a way to make things right with Blaine if you were wrong. It's simple."

"Nothing is that simple, Finn," Kurt replied, turning his head to look at his step-brother.

"Only because you make things complicated. Just apologize, tell him you were wrong and that you want to be friends again. And stop treating him like shit."


	7. The Truth

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing!

**A/n: So for reference purposes, I have my own list of names for the Warblers. The official names stay the same (Jeff, Nick, Wes, etc.), but for all of the other guy's I've just sort of randomly assigned names. Whenever I mention someone who isn't an official character, I'll list which of the guys I'm seeing when I think of that character, okay? For this chapter:**

**Flint – Luke Edgemon  
>Eli – Brock Baker<br>Aaron – Matt Hall**

**Andrew – Jon Hall**

**For the record, I have one list that I use in all of my stories and I may put it on my profile for reference in the future.**

* * *

><p>Kurt couldn't believe that he was doing this. He'd spent the entire summer avoiding everyone from Dalton who might possibly know anything about what had happened between Blaine and Aaron. He hadn't wanted to know. But now he was coming to realize that it had been a mistake to just ignore the problem and his time at Dalton. The Warblers had been his friends, and he'd abandoned that because he was upset at Blaine. Which was really pretty stupid considering the fact that they hadn't had anything to do with what had happened. Well, except for Flint and Eli, who had supplied the alcohol. Where a couple of prep school boys had gotten hold of that much beer was still a mystery.<p>

"Kurt… you aren't here to spy on us again, are you?" Kurt smiled as he felt Jeff gently slap him on the back of his shoulder.

"No, Jeff. Believe it or not, I have bigger issues in my life right now than show choir set lists. Do you know if Aaron is here or not?" Kurt asked, trying to glance past the tall blonde into the Warblers common room. He'd arrived at Dalton just in time to catch the boys before rehearsal.

"I haven't seen him yet. But I just got here myself… want me to check?"

"Thanks, Jeff. That would be great." Kurt folded his arms and leaned against the wall just outside of the common room, waiting as patiently as he could for the boy he was looking for. He smiled at a few of the boys who walked by and spoke to him, but mostly he just waited for Aaron to come.

"Jeff said you were waiting for me." Kurt turned as he heard a familiar voice and came face to face with the Warbler.

"We need to talk. About David's party." The boy had a confused look on his face at first, but Kurt knew the moment Aaron figured out exactly what he was talking about.

"Oh."

"What happened after I left? Between you and Blaine, I mean." Kurt watched as Aaron glanced down at the ground, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I was sort of expecting this question to come two months ago…" the boy began. "I don't remember everything."

"Just tell me what you remember," Kurt replied.

"We all kept drinking after you left… Wes made a joke about Blaine trying to keep up with Andrew, and I think he must have taken it seriously. He started drinking more after you left. I dunno… at some point he started getting kind of out of control and Thad took him upstairs to try and sober him up a little. I don't really know about after that."

"How did the two of you end up in bed together half-naked?" Kurt asked, crossing his arms.

"He got sick at some point before we all went to bed… I wasn't there, Thad told me about it when I questioned why Blaine wasn't fully clothed. But that wasn't until the next day, after Blaine had left. But I didn't do anything to him, okay? He did sort of start trying to cuddle with me at one point, but that was as far as it went."

"So nothing happened?"

"No. Nothing. I must have gotten overheated or something – that's the only reason I would have ended up half-naked." Kurt watched as Aaron looked up and shook his head. "Look, Kurt… I know I have a reputation. And I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that it's completely undeserved. But I would never do that with someone that I knew was in a relationship, okay? I've been cheated on before… I wouldn't knowingly make someone else go through that."

Kurt sighed. He was relieved in a way, but at the same time he felt awful for the way he'd treated Blaine over the past several weeks. "Thanks, Aaron. That's what I needed to know."

"Is everything okay between the two of you?" Aaron asked, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't screw something up, did I? Because I never intended to do anything… we were just sleeping, I swear."

"We're not okay. Not right now. But I think we will be. Thanks, Aaron." Kurt turned and started to leave, trying to think through what he'd just learned.

"Hey, Kurt… where is Blaine, anyway? No one here seems to have heard from him in a few weeks…" Aaron commented.

"He's living with his grandparents in Lima. He transferred to McKinley."

"Well tell him to return some of our calls, okay? We were all starting to freak out, especially after Nick went over to his house the other day and no one answered…" Kurt nodded.

"I'll pass on the message."

* * *

><p>Blaine really hated doing homework. At least at Dalton, homework had been challenging and something that actually helped him understand the material they were covering in class. At McKinley, it seemed as though the homework assignments were simply designed to be practice of whatever they'd done in class, without thinking about really challenging them to see if they could figure out the direction they were headed. It was simple and rather pointless – Blaine could definitely see why his father had been hesitant about allowing him to leave Dalton to go back into a public school.<p>

The doorbell was a welcome interruption from the French translation work Blaine had been working on. He got up and hurried to the front door, just barely beating his grandmother there. "I've got it, Gamma…" Blaine had the door open before his grandmother could even make a comment, although he was surprised to find Kurt standing there waiting for him. "Kurt… hi." Blaine watched the way Kurt refused to look him in the eye.

"Can we talk? In private?" Blaine nodded, unlocking the front door and walking out onto the porch. He pointed Kurt towards the swing down on the end of the porch by the garage, where they both sat down. Blaine didn't say anything, waiting for Kurt to start. He was the one who wanted to talk, so Blaine decided to let him. "I went to Dalton this afternoon."

Blaine raised an eyebrow, unsure of where all of this was heading. He wasn't completely sure that he wanted to know, given the way Kurt was refusing to look at him. Blaine didn't know what that meant.

"I'm sorry. It was wrong of me to jump to conclusions like I did."

"I'm guessing you talked to Aaron?" Blaine asked.

"Yeah. And he swore that nothing happened. Well, nothing that didn't happen between the two of us after Rachel's house party last year, anyway," Kurt replied. Blaine glanced at the younger boy, noting the fact that he was smiling even though that incident hadn't exactly gone over well with Kurt's dad. "All you did was try to cuddle with Aaron. And you weren't fully dressed because you got sick or something… at least that's what Thad told Aaron."

"I guess it would have saved us both a lot of trouble if we'd thought to ask Aaron in the first place, huh?"

"Yeah, it would have. I'm really sorry, okay? For the way I treated you. For being a complete asshole. For being so closed-minded." Blaine glanced down as he felt Kurt taking his hand and intertwining their fingers. "Please forgive me."

Blaine sat there in silence for a few moments, thinking over everything that had happened over the past few months. "You jumped to conclusions, Kurt. I just… I don't understand why you were so convinced that I had done something wrong, even though I couldn't remember any of it."

"In my defense, you thought it was possible, too. You couldn't deny it," Kurt replied.

"I didn't remember. I still don't remember." Blaine pulled his hand away from Kurt's with a sigh.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that…"

"There were a lot of things that shouldn't have been said. But they were, and it's kind of hard to take them back, you know?" Blaine replied, standing up. He started back towards the front door.

"I wish that I could. If I could take back the last two and a half months, I would. But the best I can do is to tell you that I'm sorry." Blaine turned back to the younger boy.

"What if I told you that wasn't enough? What if I couldn't accept you saying that you were sorry? Because you sure as hell couldn't accept that I was sorry, even though I hadn't done anything wrong." Blaine did his best to keep the anger that he'd been holding inside out of his voice, but he knew that it was probably coming through loud and clear. He watched as Kurt shook his head, tears in his eyes. Blaine could see that the boy was upset, but he didn't back down. "It hurt, Kurt… it hurt me just as much as it hurt you for the two of us to break up. And I don't know that I can handle this…"

Kurt was standing right in front of him before Blaine could even fully process what was going on. Blaine stood still, letting the younger boy reach and play with his curls for a moment. "I'm sorry. And I still love you…" Blaine didn't move as Kurt leaned in and pressed a kiss against his lips. It was gentle and sweet, soft and exactly the way it had been before David's graduation party. Despite the fact that he was upset with Kurt, Blaine didn't want the kiss to end. "Tell me you didn't feel anything. Tell me that kiss meant nothing to you, and I will walk away right now and stop bothering you."

Blaine shook his head. "That would be a lie."

"Then I'm not going to give up," Kurt replied. Blaine closed his eyes and sighed as the boy stepped back, away from him. "I love you, and I'm not ready to give you up." Blaine watched as the boy walked away and got back into his car, driving off.

"If you aren't ready to give me up, then why did you give up so easily before?"


	8. Class Project

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing!

**A/n: Alright, so I know it's been a bit of a wait. But between going to Ohio for Glee Live and then driving all over the state for a funeral, I've been exhausted. But here's a new chapter for you!**

Blaine wasn't sure what had possessed him to be such a jerk to Kurt when the boy had come over to apologize. But he'd been so upset… finding out that all it had taken was talking to Aaron for Kurt to forgive him, after all of that…

"You have to go to school this morning…" Blaine rolled onto his side as his grandmother stood in the doorway with her arms crossed.

"I'm starting to think that the idea of going back to Dalton might not be such a bad one," Blaine replied, pushing back the covers from his bed and standing up. He regretted the words almost as soon as they were out of his mouth.

"Is someone bothering you at school? Is everything okay?" she asked, reaching up and touching his shoulder.

"No… nothing like that. I just said some things to Kurt…" Blaine began, shaking his head and sighing. "I should get ready. It's not like avoiding him is going to make the problem go away…"

"Blaine, why don't you tell me what's going on between you and Kurt? You've been upset over something all summer, and from what I understand you haven't told anyone what's happening."

"Gamma, I don't have time… I have to get ready for school. I can't be late…"

"I'll write you a note. Now sit back down and tell me what's going on… you're not getting out of this." Blaine shook his head and did what he was told, sighing as his grandmother sat down on the bed next to him. "Now spill."

"David's graduation party. I… I got a little carried away with the alcohol…"

"You were drinking… you realize that's illegal, don't you?" Blaine sighed and closed his eyes, shaking his head.

"Yes, Gamma… and it was stupid. It wasn't the first time I've gotten drunk and done something stupid. Although I'm pretty sure it'll be the last time I ever drink, after what happened…"

"Spit it out, Blaine. Stalling isn't going to help."

"That's just it… I don't remember what happened. But I woke up the next morning in bed with Aaron, and until yesterday Kurt was pretty well convinced that something happened."

"You cheated on Kurt?" Blaine sighed, knowing exactly why his grandmother jumped to that same conclusion everyone else had.

"No. Kurt finally thought to ask Aaron about it yesterday… that was why he came over so late. I was just really frustrated with him when he came over – he refused to believe that I might be innocent before, and now that he knows I'm innocent he thinks that we can just go back to normal like nothing happened. I just… I can't let it go so easily." Blaine looked down at his hands and sighed. "I screwed up, didn't I Gamma?"

"I can't tell you whether or not you screwed up. But it sounds to me like you and Kurt really need to sit down and have a talk about what's going on between the two of you."

"I know."

"Go get ready for school. I'll drive you if you're running late…" Blaine nodded and did as he was told, rushing into the shower and purposely rushed through everything so that he wouldn't have to get his grandmother to take him to school. It had been one thing when he hadn't been allowed to drive, but now that he'd healed it wasn't necessary and Blaine wasn't exactly sure how the other kids at McKinley would react to that now.

Blaine managed to rush out the door just in time to make it to school without having to rush too much or speed. He wasn't completely surprised when he walked into his economics class and realized that Puck was shooting him dirty looks as they sat there. Blaine did his best to ignore the football player and do his own work, but after a little while he couldn't pretend that he wasn't seeing the looks anymore.

"Okay, seriously… what's the problem?" Blaine finally asked, putting his pencil down and turning to face Puck.

"You made Kurt cry, dude. That's not cool in my book." Blaine sighed, shaking his head.

"Did Kurt happen to tell you _why_ he was crying exactly? Because I'm guessing he failed to mention exactly why I didn't want to go out with him again…"

"I don't particularly care what your reason is… you hurt my boy, and that's not cool."

"So it doesn't matter that he hurt me first? It doesn't matter at all to you that the reason I won't be with him is because I don't trust him to not jump to conclusions and get pissed off at me every time I do a single thing that he dislikes?"

"Mr. Anderson, Mr. Puckerman… unless the two of you would like to finish your discussion in the principal's office, I suggest you both shut your mouths and get back to work." Blaine bit down on his bottom lip, going back to the worksheet he was supposed to be doing. It was only a few minutes until the bell rang and Blaine was glad that he could get away from the annoying stares Puck kept giving him.

Blaine knew that French wasn't going to be much fun given the fact that he shared the class with Kurt. It didn't help that their teacher chose that day to assign partners for a larger project that would take most of the semester, and somehow Blaine ended up being assigned as Kurt's partner.

"I won't be upset if you want to ask for a new partner," Kurt commented as they moved their desks together so that they could discuss what they were going to do as far as their project.

"You're the only person in this class that I know understands French and won't just copy off me," Blaine replied, pulling out his notebook as the teacher passed out a sheet with the list of approved topics.

"So you'll put up with me so that you don't have to do it all yourself?"

"Let me be really clear, Kurt. Yes, I'm upset with you. No, I don't feel comfortable with the idea of being with you right now. But I don't hate you… I never said we couldn't be friends." Blaine started looking over the handout, ignoring the way Kurt seemed to just be watching him instead of working. "Now that we've got this clear, can we please get to work? I'd like to actually know what we're doing by the time class ends… I have to have a 4.0 this year."

"You're a genius, Blaine… you having a 4.0 at McKinley is _not_ going to be a problem. You almost had a perfect GPA at Dalton…"

"I'm not at Dalton anymore, Kurt. And having a 3.8 at McKinley isn't the same as a 3.8 at Dalton… it doesn't mean as much for getting into college. And right now that's my main goal." Blaine didn't miss the look that passed across Kurt's face that clearly showed how little the younger boy wanted to hear about his college plans. As much as Blaine hated seeing Kurt upset, he couldn't bring himself to say anything that might help. "So, any of the topic ideas catching your eye?"


	9. Fighting It Out

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing!

**A/n: Don't hate me for this chapter, y'all… I know you're probably all sick of Blaine and Kurt fighting, but this is what happens every time the bunnies get together. I think it's because they're mad at me because I won't write the ending for one of my other fics yet…**

If there was one thing that Blaine Anderson knew very well, it was that Burt Hummel was definitely the Papa Bear type. The type that really hated when anyone messed with its young. Which was a large part of the reason Blaine was hesitating to ring the doorbell of the Hudson-Hummel home. He was supposed to be there to work on his French project with Kurt, but after the reactions he'd received from some of the glee clubbers when they'd discovered what had gone down the previous summer, Blaine was really dreading seeing Kurt's family again.

"Either come in the house or get off my front porch." Blaine looked up to see Burt standing in the doorway, his arms crossed and looking just terrifying enough to make Blaine wonder if he wouldn't be better off facing that bear instead of his ex-boyfriend's father. But Blaine did as he was told and entered the house, wiping off his shoes on the mat before he kicked them off and put them in their old place near the door. Kurt had instituted a "no shoes in the house" rule, and Blaine definitely wasn't going to do anything to break the rules that he knew about. "We need to talk before you go upstairs."

"Mr. Hummel, I know you're upset with me. And I completely understand if you don't trust me right now, and maybe even if you never trust me again. But I promise you that I won't be taking Kurt to any more parties that involve alcohol, and I have no intention of drinking ever again."

"That's all well and good, but I'm more concerned about the cheating than the underage drinking…"

"There was no cheating. Kurt talked to Aaron a few days ago… it was all just a big misunderstanding," Blaine interrupted. He had no intention of letting Burt believe something that had been proven false.

"But you didn't know that. You thought it was possible before that, didn't you?"

"Because of the drinking. I did a lot of stupid things under the influence of alcohol before that night… I wasn't sure what I was capable of when I was that drunk, and Aaron's reputation didn't exactly help things." Blaine couldn't read the look on Burt's face, but it certainly didn't look very good. "Mr. Hummel, I have no intention of drinking again until I'm of age… and I never want to get that drunk again. It's not worth it."

"I'm glad you've learned that lesson. But I'm not sure that I'm okay with the idea of you and my son dating again just yet…"

"Mr. Hummel, I don't want you to get the wrong impression. Kurt and I are not dating. We're working on a class project, and we're just friends. I'm not ready to be in a relationship with Kurt again. Kurt wasn't the only one who got hurt by everything that happened." Blaine sighed. "I'm sorry… Kurt and I have to get to work on this project." With that, Blaine turned and walked up the stairs to Kurt's room.

Blaine didn't mean to be rude, but he wasn't sure that he could handle standing there talking to Burt much longer without either breaking down or screaming. He really couldn't take much more of the constant stream of disapproval he continued to face from pretty much everyone who knew both of them; it seemed like pretty much everyone had taken Kurt's side on the issue, and most of them hadn't heard yet that he was innocent.

"I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to come up so we could get to work," Kurt commented as Blaine stepped into the doorway.

"Your dad stopped me." Blaine was a little surprised at the look that crossed over Kurt's face. The boy seemed genuinely concerned about what might have happened between his father and his ex-boyfriend.

"Oh Gaga… I forgot to talk to him about what happened when I went to talk to Aaron…"

"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure he was about ready to kill me. Thankfully he gave me a chance to try and explain myself. Not that I'm sure it helped." Blaine sat down on Kurt's bed, purposely moving to the corner furthest away from Kurt so that they would have the space between them to spread out their work. It was also at least partially because Blaine didn't particularly want to be _that_ close to Kurt at the moment.

"I'm sorry. I should have spoken to him before you came over…"

"Or answered the door since you didn't talk to him." Blaine busied himself with getting out the books he'd picked up from the library to use for their report so that he wouldn't have to look at Kurt.

"I said, I'm sorry, okay? Chill out already… Dad didn't kill you."

"He seemed to have the idea that we might be getting back together, too. Something else you might want to talk to him about if you ever decide to actually let the rest of the world know that you were wrong about me," Blaine commented.

"Do you have to act like an asshole, Blaine? Really?"

"I'm not trying to be an asshole. I'm just kind of pissed off about the fact that you're letting everyone continue to believe that I'm the only one who fucked things up between the two of us when you _know_ the truth about what happened that night." Blaine sighed. "Let's just stop talking about this. We have work to do… our presentation on Renoir isn't going to write itself."

Blaine opened one of the books he'd picked up to demonstrate his point, flipping through them until he got to the section they needed. The boys spent more than an hour working on their project before another word was said about anything other than Renoir.

"Do you want to stay for dinner? Carole's making a meatloaf…" Kurt began.

"Gamma's expecting me to come home in time for dinner."

"Are you ever going to actually act like we're friends again? You say that you're okay with being friends, but whenever I try to be friendly you shut me down."

"Kurt, I'm trying. But you have to stop expecting everything to just go back to the way it was before we started dating when I know that I can't trust you to give me the benefit of the doubt…"

"That's unfair…"

"And you jumping to conclusions and breaking up with me without ever thinking about talking to Aaron wasn't unfair?" Blaine interrupted. He started packing up his books and getting ready to go as he spoke, slamming the books closed a little more forcefully than was necessary.

"Blaine…"

"I think we're done for the day. I'll talk to you tomorrow at school," Blaine replied, zipping his backpack closed. He didn't want to deal with Kurt any more. He couldn't deal with another argument already. Blaine started out of the room and down the stairs.

"Damn it, Blaine! We need to talk about this!"

"Then talk to me about it! Stop treating me like I'm the bad guy… we both fucked up, Kurt! You don't get to play the innocent victim here."

"And you do?"

"I didn't say that, Kurt. But don't you think I've been punished enough? You've treated me like I'm scum for months, and now all of a sudden you're willing to be my best friend again like none of that ever happened. It doesn't work that way, Kurt. It took time for you to forgive me… why can't you accept that it's going to take time for me to forgive you?"


	10. Reconciliation

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing!

**A/n: I'm really not sure why I wrote another chapter for this story instead of writing a chapter for another story, since I updated this one most recently… but this is where my muse decided to go. Oh well.**

Kurt had been staying away from Blaine for several days, and he was getting sick of it. But Blaine had asked him to keep his distance for a while, and Kurt was going to respect that. He wasn't sure that he could keep his distance much longer. Kurt sighed as he walked up to Blaine's locker just after the last bell, biting down on his bottom lip.

"Can we talk now? Without fighting?" Kurt asked. He held his books in front of his chest as he waited for Blaine to answer.

"Okay. But not here." Kurt followed Blaine into an empty classroom and sat down on top of one of the tables across from Blaine. "Talk."

"I'm sorry. I should have said something to my dad before you came over last week." Kurt reached out and put a hand on Blaine's knee, thankful that the older boy didn't move away immediately. "And I should have told everyone that I was wrong about you. I was _really_ wrong." Kurt waited for a moment to see what Blaine would say in response to his apologies. "Please say something… anything…"

"It hurts, Kurt. Having everyone hate you for something you don't remember doing, and for something that you then find out you _didn't_ do. I knew that coming to public school after being at Dalton was going to be tough… but having the only people I know here hate me because of what happened between the two of us hurt almost as bad as the fact that you refused to talk to me all summer…"

"Like you said the other day – we both screwed things up. I want to make things right again, Blaine. Even if we aren't going to be boyfriends again, I want things to be okay between the two of us." Kurt was more than a little surprised when Blaine reached down and took his hand.

"I do miss the way things were between us before David's party. I miss you. But I don't think I can forget that pain."

"I don't think either of us will ever forget what happened. You were the first person I ever fell in love with, Blaine… and when we talked after the party, I couldn't think of anything except for the fact that I'd _told_ you that you needed to slow down and that if you'd listened to me we would _know_ what happened that night. But you were too stubborn…"

"It was the alcohol. I don't make good decisions, and I don't listen very well when I'm drunk…"

"I know. I'm the one that had to take you home after Rachel's party last year, remember?" Kurt watched as Blaine nodded and sighed.

"I should have remembered that night… or the morning after that, really. It might have reminded me why I didn't drink for so long after that…" The two boys sat there for a few moments, neither of them really looking at one another.

"Can we try this friend thing again? For real this time… take all of the fighting we've already done out of the equation, not bring it up again. We need to move on from this."

"Can we move on from this? Really?" Blaine asked. Kurt shrugged.

"We have to try. We can't keep going on like this… no matter what kind of relationship we have, we can't keep on hating each other and blaming each other for everything that happened between the two of us. I can't live like this…"

Kurt was more than a little surprised when Blaine stood up and took his other hand, pulling him to his feet. But what shocked him the most was the fact that Blaine pulled him into a hug and didn't seem to want to let go of him. "I can't do this anymore, either."

"So we're okay?" Kurt asked. He bit down on his bottom lip as Blaine pulled away from their hug and nodded.

"I think we're okay." Kurt smiled for what felt like the first time in several weeks. Maybe even several months. And it felt _good_. "We should probably go to the library… we need to get back to work on our project for French class."

"Fuck French… I'd rather just talk," Kurt replied.

"I thought that's what we just did…"

"I want to talk about what happened after the fight. About your summer…"

"I didn't really do much of anything. Got a job. Went to Maine for a week to visit my mom's parents. Came home and found out my dad had to move out of the country and that I couldn't go with him…" Blaine began. Kurt watched as the boy sighed and shook his head. "I'd already decided I wasn't going to go back to Dalton. I didn't want to change my mind just because things were going to be different than I'd been expecting."

"You were sick when your dad left, weren't you?" Kurt watched as Blaine nodded. He couldn't help but feel a little angry with the man.

"I was starting to feel a little sick when we dropped him off at the airport. We thought I just had food poisoning… that I would be over it in a few hours if I got some rest. He was still on the plane to Dubai when my grandmother decided that it wasn't food poisoning and she needed to take me to the hospital. I can remember getting into the car, but I don't remember much beyond that. Not for a few days, anyway… I was _really_ sick."

"Oh Gaga…"

"Don't freak, okay? It's over… I'm fine, I survived."

"You shouldn't have been alone. I should have been there with you through all of that…"

"I thought we were going to stop talking about all of that," Blaine commented, cutting off Kurt before he could say anything else about the fight they'd had at the beginning of the summer. "It's not like we can change things now. It's over… I'm fine."

"You nearly died, and all you can say is that you're fine?"

"What else am I supposed to say? I'm not sick anymore. I'm fine." Kurt squeezed Blaine's hands, sighing.

"Fine. Then I guess I'll just have to say that I'm sorry I wasn't there for you," Kurt finally commented. The two of them sat there for a few moments in silence, still holding hands but not really looking at each other.

"We should probably get out of here before someone comes in here and kicks us out…" Blaine commented, finally pulling away his hands and picking his bag back up. "Maybe… would you want to go to my house and hang out? Gamma's making homemade pizza for dinner… it's even actually kind of healthy since she and Pops are supposed to be on diets."

"I'd like that. And I guess we can work on that French project some, too…" Kurt began.

"Except you still haven't told me about your summer."


	11. Secrets

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing!

**A/n: And another chapter is ready! Don't hate me, guys… I know it may be a little OOC, but I have my reasons. :D**

"You don't really want to hear about my summer…" Kurt commented as they left the classroom, headed for the parking lot.

"I told you about mine, Kurt. Besides, it's not like I can get upset with you if anything happened… we weren't together." Kurt knew that Blaine was just trying to reassure him, but he still wasn't sure that he wanted to admit to Blaine what his summer had consisted of.

"Nothing really happened."

"Then why don't you want to tell me? What's the big deal?" Blaine asked, opening a door and blinking a few times as they walked out into the sunlight.

"The big deal is that I did some things I'm not proud of over the summer. Well, one thing in particular."

"Join the club," Blaine replied. Kurt glanced down as Blaine took his hand. "What could you have done that's so bad you don't want to tell me? You already said that nothing really happened…"

"I was really depressed, Blaine. I missed you." Kurt stopped walking at the edge of the parking lot, sighing as Blaine squeezed his hand. "I'm a fuck-up, Blaine."

"We all fuck up sometimes, Kurt. It's part of being human."

"I couldn't even succeed at making the pain go away…" Kurt began, reaching up and pushing away the tears that were threatening to fall from his eyes.

"Kurt… just tell me what you did. I'm not going to judge you, but you're starting to scare me…"

"I just wanted to make the pain go away. And I'd tried everything to make it stop, but nothing was working…" Kurt glanced up at Blaine's face for a moment, hoping the boy would get the message about what he was trying to say. The slightly shorter boy still looked confused. "Blaine, I…" Kurt lifted the hem of his shirt, pulling the fabric back to expose a series of thin red lines on his abdomen. Kurt quickly pulled the shirt back down as soon as he heard Blaine's reaction. "I don't know why I did it. It was stupid…"

Kurt was surprised when Blaine wrapped his arms around Kurt and pulled him into a tight hug. "God… Kurt…" Under normal circumstances, Kurt probably would have pushed Blaine away just like anyone else. But he wanted to be comforted. Kurt wanted to know that someone cared. "Please tell me you've stopped."

"I'm trying."

"You have to promise me, Kurt. You can't do this to yourself any more… you're my friend, and I care about you. I can't watch you do this to yourself." Kurt pushed Blaine away with a sigh.

"I know I need to stop. And I'm going to. I promise."

"Does anyone else know about this?" Blaine asked. Kurt shook his head, sighing.

"I didn't want to tell anyone about what was going on… about you or about that. It just hurt too much…"

"And doing that to yourself didn't hurt?" Kurt could tell that Blaine wasn't trying to be mean; it really was just curiosity that made him question what Kurt had done.

"It hurt. But not as much as everything else. I had just made myself so numb to everything that was going on – I had to see if I could even feel anything any more. To make sure I was still alive…"

"You shouldn't have needed to do that to make sure you were still alive. You should have said something… God, I would have preferred your dad showing up on my doorstep with his shotgun…"

"What good would that have done? It wouldn't have made losing you hurt any less. And that's what it felt like all summer. I'd lost you – the first guy I'd ever loved – because we were both stupid. Of course, at the time I didn't realize that I had been just as stupid as you had…"

"Kurt…"

"Just don't worry about it, okay? It's over. We're friends again, and that's what I need right now," Kurt replied with a smile. He turned and started toward his car again. "I'll meet you at your house… we can finish talking there, and then we can try and knock out some more of the research for this French project."

"Maybe we should do the rest of our homework before we start on the French project today… we have until December to finish that one," Blaine replied. "And you should probably call your dad and tell him you won't be home for dinner. You know that Gamma is going to insist that you stay for dinner. Although I apologize if she tries to make you eat veggie burgers or something strange like that."

Blaine hurried over to his own car, hoping that this would mean that everything would be okay between the two of them.

* * *

><p>Blaine wasn't completely sure how they had gotten to this point. He knew, of course, that they had come into his room to get some homework done before dinner. And the two boys had been working diligently up until a few minutes earlier. Things had changed the moment Kurt had moved to sit on the bed next to Blaine with his copy of <em>The Catcher in the Rye<em> so that they could work on it together – the boys were taking the same English class, just during different periods. But the book had been forgotten almost immediately, because Blaine hadn't been able to keep his hands to himself with Kurt sitting so close.

"What happened to not wanting to be together again yet?" Kurt asked, pulling away from their makeout session for a moment.

"I just… I couldn't help myself," Blaine replied. He pulled away from Kurt and stood up, taking his books over to his desk.

"I didn't mean I wanted you to stop, Blaine… I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were doing. What you're getting into if we're going to start this up again…" Blaine smiled and turned back around.

"I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing, Kurt. I'm almost an adult. We're almost adults. We just have to start acting like adults if we're going to make this work this time. And I want this to work… I don't think I could handle another break-up like that one." Blaine moved back over to the bed and gently lifted Kurt's shirt up so that he could see the scars on the boy's stomach, most of them still dark red and scary looking. He leaned down and pressed a soft kiss against the marks. "And I really don't want to see you do this to yourself again. I want you to promise me that there won't ever be any more. That you'll call me or someone else if you ever feel like you need to do this to yourself again."

"Okay. I can do that." Blaine wrapped an arm around Kurt's shoulders, sighing.

"Maybe you should tell someone else, too…" Blaine began.

"Blaine…"

"Just hear me out. I just want to protect you, and maybe it would be good for you to have more than one person you can go to… what if something I do upsets you to the point that you feel like you have to hurt yourself again? What if I'm not enough to stop you from doing this again?"

"You will be," Kurt replied.

"But what if I'm not? What if you need someone who actually knows how to handle all of this? Because I've got nothing, Kurt. All I can do is listen and be here for you… and I'm just afraid that it may not always be enough." Blaine pressed a kiss against Kurt's cheek. "Please. Tell Mercedes. Miss Pillsbury. Anyone you want. Just _please_ make sure that there's someone else who can help you for the times when you want nothing to do with me. This isn't going to be our last fight, and I don't want you to end up hurting yourself if you don't want to talk to me." He reached up and brushed some of Kurt's hair back into its place.

"If it'll make you feel better, I'll tell someone else, too. But not Miss Pillsbury… I don't want her to put me in therapy if I can deal with this on my own. And I want to try dealing with it myself first."

"Okay. Just make sure that you have more people to talk to than just me."


	12. Scares

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing!

**A/n: Here's the next chapter… hope you all enjoy!**

Burt Hummel didn't look happy about what he saw in the living room as he walked in, but to Blaine's relief he didn't say a word about the fact that Blaine and Kurt were sitting a little too close for a platonic relationship, with their arms wrapped around each other. Blaine knew that it would look suspicious to anyone who didn't know that they had gotten back together.

"You boys taking a break from homework?" the man asked.

"We're finished… I invited Blaine to stay for dinner, if that's alright," Kurt replied. Blaine could see that Burt wasn't okay with him staying for dinner and he started to get up.

"Actually, I just remembered… I'm supposed to be home by six. My dad's supposed to call tonight from Dubai. It's going to be really late for him, so I need to be there on time. I'll call you later, Kurt." Blaine squeezed Kurt's hand as he got up off the couch and picked up his messenger bag from where he had dropped it by the door when they had come downstairs. Blaine hurried out to his car, pulling out his cell phone and typing a text message to Kurt.

_Sorry for lying. Pretty sure your dad wasn't a fan of me being in the house right now…_

Blaine dropped the phone into the cup holder inside his car and cranked it, pulling out of the driveway and starting for his grandparents' home. Burt Hummel was not the type of person that Blaine really wanted to have mad at him, and it was easier for him to just stay away from the man until Burt either had a change of heart about him or Kurt explained the whole situation. He sighed as he heard the phone ringing, picking it up and glancing at the screen. He unlocked it so that he could read the message from Kurt.

_You shouldn't have to leave just because my dad doesn't approve_.

Blaine didn't get a chance to respond to Kurt's text message. Before he could even pull up the keyboard, the phone was knocked out of his hand by the force of impact.

Blaine whimpered as he came around. He tried not to move; something told him that it would hurt. "Hey… can you tell me your name, kid?"

"Blaine Anderson…" he muttered, wincing as he tried to turn towards the sound of the voice.

"Don't move, kid… just hold tight until the ambulance gets here. It should only be a minute."

"What happened?" Blaine asked, closing his eyes again. He didn't really like looking at the cracked glass of his windshield.

"The other driver ran the red light." Blaine reached up and tried to brush away what he thought was hair on his forehead, but pulled his hand back as his fingers came across a warm liquid. He felt the person who had been talking to him push his hand down.

"I'm bleeding…"

"You'll be fine." Blaine felt something being pressed against the cut on his forehead and hissed at the stinging sensation. "Just keep talking to me."

* * *

><p>Kurt didn't know what he was supposed to do. He'd gotten a phone call from Blaine's grandmother saying that the boy had been in a wreck and that they were on the way to the hospital. Kurt had naturally gotten up from the table and pretty much run straight out to his car to go check on his boyfriend.<p>

"Where is he? Is Blaine okay?" Kurt asked, hurrying up to Blaine's grandfather.

"Calm down, Kurt…" the man began, putting a hand on his shoulder. Kurt forced himself to breathe and try to relax. "He's going to be okay. He has a concussion and his shoulder was dislocated… the doctor wants to keep him overnight, just for observation."

"But if he's okay, why do they want to keep him?"

"It's just a precaution, Kurt. We'll take him home tomorrow, and if he's feeling up to it he'll go back to school on Monday. And you know that you can come over to see him as much as you want until then." Kurt nodded.

"Can I go see him now?" Kurt bit down on his bottom lip as Blaine's grandfather led him back through a set of double doors and into the first little room they came to. Blaine's eyes were closed, but he didn't look like he was resting comfortably. The combination of the bruises on his face and the sling holding his arm still against his chest certainly made things seem much worse than they had sounded. Blaine's grandmother was sitting on the foot of the bed reading a book.

"It's good to see you, sweetie."

"I'm so sorry… I shouldn't have texted Blaine when I knew he was driving…"

"Kurt, you can stop apologizing right now. The other driver ran the red light… even the police officer who saw the accident happen said that there was no way Blaine could have avoided getting hit." Kurt smiled slightly as the woman reached out and squeezed his hand. "I know you probably have to go home soon… we'll give you boys a few minutes. Someone should be here soon to take him upstairs."

Kurt nodded and moved closer to Blaine, running a hand through the boy's curls to push them away from the boy's face. He was surprised to see the large cut that stretched across part of Blaine's forehead. "Hey…"

Kurt forced a smile as he saw Blaine's eyes opening. "Hey there… how are you feeling?"

"Tired. And sore. And kind of sick…" Kurt leaned over and pressed a soft kiss against the side of Blaine's forehead, avoiding the bandages. "Your dad's _really_ going to hate me now."

"Why would my dad hate you?" Kurt asked, confused.

"Because you're missing Friday night family dinner to be here with me. And you really don't have to be…"

"He'll understand, Blaine. I was actually talking to him about you before your grandfather called." Kurt reached out and took Blaine's good hand, smiling at the boy. "I think we're going to be okay. He actually told me to have your grandparents call him about getting your car fixed."

"It's probably totaled… it was _really_ bad looking from what I could see," Blaine replied. Kurt smiled as the boy squeezed his hand. "I was so scared that I wouldn't get to see you again. I couldn't find my phone – I don't know where it went in the accident…"

"Hey… you're okay. That's all that matters now." Kurt leaned over and pressed another kiss on Blaine's forehead. "But don't _ever_ scare me like that again."

"Can you stay with me tonight?" Even just for a little while?"

"I can call my dad when they come to take you upstairs and see if he'll let me stay. But that's only if the nurses will let me stay…"

"I can threaten to hold my breath until I pass out…" Blaine began. Kurt shook his head, giggling.

"That doesn't work. And don't even _think_ about actually threatening to do that… they'll laugh at you."

"You do realize I was kidding, right?" Kurt smiled as Blaine closed his eyes. "I think I'm going to try and sleep for a little while… I'm so tired…"

"Go ahead… I'm right here."


	13. Resting

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing!

**A/n: So I'm writing this author's note at seven in the morning after having not slept at all. Considering I haven't done much more than sleep in the past 48 hours, I'm not at all concerned by this. Anyways, enjoy!**

Blaine was bored. He'd only been out of the hospital for an hour or so, but thanks to his grandmother's insistence that he follow the doctor's orders he hadn't even gotten out of the bed since he'd gotten into it. "Please, Gamma… I just want to go downstairs while Kurt's here. I'm going to be stuck in bed all weekend anyway. It's just for a little while…"

"You need to rest."

"I can rest on the couch. It's not that different than resting in my bed for the rest of the day."

"Two hours. And then I want you to come back up to bed and lay down. You have to get plenty of rest if you're going to heal…"

"I know. And I promise you I'm going to be getting plenty of rest this weekend. But Kurt is coming over and I really want to spend time with him," Blaine replied. He winced as he started to get up; his chest ached with every movement, his headache seemed to never want to go away, and he couldn't really move his arm thanks to the sling. Not that he really wanted to move it because that hurt, too.

"Okay. While Kurt is here, you can stay downstairs on the couch. But _stay_ on the couch unless you have to get up, understand? You need…"

"Rest. I know, Gamma. The most physically taxing thing I plan on doing is holding Kurt's hand. Maybe a kiss." Blaine groaned as his grandmother helped him to his feet.

"Sweetie… if it hurts that much maybe you should just stay in bed…"

"I'm just a little stiff… I haven't been moving much," Blaine replied. He started towards the stairs slowly, doing his best to avoid any of the movements that would cause him pain.

"You're not moving much because it hurts to move."

"I never said that." Blaine's movements were slow and deliberate, and it took much longer than it really should have to get down to the couch. Blaine had to wait for a few moments as his grandmother fluffed the couch pillows before she would let him sit down.

"It's a little obvious by the way you wince every time you move," she replied as Blaine sat down. "Put your feet up and rest." The doorbell rang at that moment and Blaine started to get back up. "I will get it, Blaine. You stay on the couch like we agreed."

Blaine closed his eyes, starting to drift off as he waited for Kurt to show up. "How's Blaine doing?"

"He's pretty sore… and exhausted."

"I could come back later…"

"Kurt, get your butt over here," Blaine muttered. He reached out his good hand in the general direction he'd heard Kurt's voice coming from. He smiled as he felt Kurt's hand slide into his.

"Blaine, if you're too tired I can always come back later…"

"I want you to stay with me…" Blaine gently squeezed Kurt's hand and opened his eyes, turning until he could see Kurt's face and smile at him. "I missed you this morning."

"He's barely been awake since you left the hospital last night. What little time he's spent awake has been filled with Blaine insisting that he isn't in as much pain as he really is."

"It only hurts when I move," Blaine replied. It wasn't_ that_ much of a lie; his head was really the only thing that actually hurt when he was laying still. The other pains were just a dull ache the rest of the time.

"How are you ever going to be ready to go back to school on Monday?"

"I think we're going to go ahead and say that he won't be in school on Monday. Not unless things change pretty dramatically between now and then."

"Gamma…"

"We'll discuss it later. Probably tomorrow night after dinner. I'll leave you boys alone." Blaine smiled at Kurt as his grandmother left.

"Do you want to watch a movie? I'm not really in the mood to talk a whole lot right now," Blaine commented, biting down on his bottom lip for a moment.

"I'll do whatever you want me to do, Blaine… I'm here to keep you company." Blaine closed his eyes as Kurt pressed a kiss against his forehead. "Harry Potter marathon?"

"Too many things explode… I was thinking more along the lines of a Disney marathon. Less that'll make my head hurt…"

"_Mulan_ first, or _Beauty and the Beast_?"

"You pick."

* * *

><p>"I wonder how much Belle's dress would weigh if it were real…" Kurt was really thinking out loud, but he was surprised when Blaine didn't answer him. He turned his head so that he could see the older boy's face, and he was surprised to find that Blaine had actually fallen asleep. Kurt paused the movie and stood up to stretch for a moment, wandering into the kitchen.<p>

"Everything okay, Kurt?"

"Blaine fell asleep… I just needed to get up and stretch for a minute," Kurt replied, smiling at Blaine's grandmother as he walked over to where she was working on dinner. "Is there anything I can do to help? I grew up cooking for my dad, before he remarried…"

"I've got this under control. But you could call your father and tell him that you're going to stay and eat dinner with us. I'm sure Blaine would want you here as long as possible, even if he is going to sleep through a lot of your time here tonight."

"I can definitely do that." Kurt sat down at the table, pulling out his phone to send his father a text saying he wouldn't be home until later. "I doubt Blaine remembered to say anything, but my dad said you should bring the car by his shop…"

"Unfortunately, the car is totaled… it would cost the insurance company more than the car's worth to have it fixed, so we might as well take the check and use it to buy Blaine another car. Though it's a shame… we were planning on buying him a new car as a graduation present. I suppose we'll have to figure something else out now."

"I'm sure you'll think of something… it's only October. You still have plenty of time to figure something else out," Kurt replied. He glanced towards the living room as he heard a moan. "I should probably go back out there and check on Blaine… it sounds like he might be waking up."

Kurt hurried out to the living room, smiling down at Blaine and kneeling next to the boy, who was still lying on the couch. "You left?"

"I just went to talk to your grandmother for a minute. Still tired?"

"I'll be tired until this stupid concussion heals. Could you… will you help me up? I really need to go to the bathroom, and it's kind of hard for Gamma to help me. She's not as strong as she wants you to believe…" Kurt nodded, getting to his feet and taking Blaine's good hand. Kurt carefully put his other hand behind Blaine's back and helped the boy into a sitting position. Kurt couldn't help but worry as he saw the pained look flash across his boyfriend's face.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine… just a little sore."

"Liar," Kurt replied with a smile as he helped the older boy to his feet. "You were in a bad car accident… bad enough to land you in the hospital overnight. It's got to be worse than just a little sore."

"It's only bad when I have to move…"

"After the bathroom, why don't I see about getting you something for the pain? I'm sure they gave you a prescription for something…"

"Talk to Gamma… she knows everything the doctor said. I think I fell asleep while he was talking this morning."

"I'm sure you did. You fell asleep during _Beauty and the Beast_ this afternoon… I think that right now you could fall asleep during just about anything."


	14. Back to School?

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing!

**A/n: Sorry it's taken me a while to get stuff up. Things have been crazy lately, and unfortunately it's looking like they're only going to get crazier in the next couple of weeks between work and getting ready to go back to school. But I'm still planning on updating as I can!**

Blaine winced as the locker next to his was slammed shut. He still had a bit of a headache, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from going to classes. He needed to keep up with the rest of his class, and he wasn't going to be able to do that from home.

"Damn, Prep School… you look like you got hit by a Mack truck…" Blaine smiled slightly at Santana's comment.

"Chevy Silverado, but close enough," Blaine replied, turning slowly to face her. He was a little surprised when the girl took his bag and the books from his hands. "I can do that…"

"I may be a bitch, Prep School. But I'm not cruel. Well, not to the people I actually sort of like. Lead the way." Blaine sighed and did as he was told, knowing that it wouldn't do him any good to argue. Santana had made up her mind, and there was no way Blaine was going to talk to girl into letting him do this his own way. Blaine tried to get Santana to give him his books as they walked into the classroom, but she walked them over to his desk and put them down next to Puck. "Puckerman – carry his books to his next class. And pass on the message to the rest of the Glee club. Because I _will_ cut a bitch if I see him carrying his own books today." Blaine sighed, closing his eyes.

"Thanks, Santana… but I think I can manage from here…"

"Prep School, are you even supposed to be here today?" Blaine closed his eyes at Santana's comment.

"I'm fine… just a little sore."

"He gets hit by truck and he says he's just a little sore."

"Dude… you got hit by a truck? I would be in bed milking it for everything it's worth if I were you…" Puck replied.

"It was just a little car accident…" Blaine began.

"You don't look like it was just a little accident. You look like you've had the shit beaten out of you by a linebacker." Blaine closed his eyes at Puck's commentary, sighing.

"Do we really have to discuss how shitty I look? I looked in the mirror this morning to get ready for school, I think I know how bad it is," he replied with a sigh. Blaine slowly sat down in his desk, hoping his fellow glee-clubbers would take a hint and leave him alone about his injuries. But Puck and Santana didn't seem to understand that he didn't want to talk about what had happened

"You should have stayed home, Prep School." Blaine watched as the bell rang and Santana rolled her eyes. "Shit… I'm going to be late for history." The girl ran out of the room, leaving Blaine to suffer through econ with Puck constantly watching him to make sure he was okay.

"Do you _have_ to watch me like that? I'm sure to get enough of it from Kurt next period, and I'd rather not have to sit through that all day…" Blaine muttered, keeping his voice low enough so that their teacher wouldn't overhear him.

"Sorry." Blaine could see the football player still occasionally glancing in his direction as the class continued, but at least he wasn't constantly watching Blaine now. It was more bearable, if only slightly so.

The class ended all too soon, and Puck had Blaine's bag and books before he could even say a word about it. "You don't have to seriously carry my books… I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"You may be okay, but Santana can be brutal and I am _not_ okay with getting my ass handed to me over something like this," Puck replied. Blaine sighed and let the football player do what he wanted; he wasn't exactly in a position to argue with someone who could easily take him down when he _wasn't_ injured. The trip to Blaine's French classroom went a lot faster with Puck along, and he certainly didn't have to worry about bumping into anyone in the crowded hallways. People seemed to give the two of them a wide berth.

"I can take it from here, really," Blaine commented as they reached the classroom door. Puck glanced around, and apparently saw something he didn't like.

"Dude, like I said, Santana is scary when she's mad. And so is Kurt… dude, if I were you, I would start apologizing for whatever the fuck you did this time _before_ he gets a chance to open his mouth." Blaine slowly turned around to see what Puck was talking about. Judging by the look on Kurt's face, the countertenor was on the warpath and Blaine was his primary target.

"What the _hell_ do you think you're doing here? You should be in bed…"

"I feel a lot better today…" Blaine began.

"You can't move your arm. You have cracked ribs and a concussion…"

"And I'll survive a day of school. I'm really okay, Kurt." Blaine started into the classroom with Puck following him to put his books down on the desk. Kurt didn't seem to want to give up, given the fact that he sat down in the empty desk next to Blaine's instead of moving across the room to his usual desk.

"This isn't a joke Blaine – it's serious. How did you even convince your grandparents to let you come to school today?" Blaine sighed, closing his eyes.

"I just said I wanted to go to school…"

"I'm calling bull on that. I know your grandmother – there is no way she would let you come to school without a fight," Kurt replied. Blaine bit down on his bottom lip. "So seriously… how did you do it?"

"Gamma has a cold. She was still asleep this morning when it was time to leave for school… Pops is a lot easier to convince than she is."

"You should be at home, resting." Blaine started to open his mouth and respond, but Kurt cut him off. "Don't even think about trying to argue with me. You know I'm right…"

"Kurt, please… I just want to get through today, and then I'll go home and rest."

"Your grandmother is going to freak out when she realizes you aren't at home resting… you do realize that she's going to come down here and make you go home, don't you?"

"I hadn't thought of that," Blaine replied, sighing. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I don't think it's going to be a big deal… I've made it this far today. I can make it through the rest of my classes."

"You've made it through one class. Can you honestly tell me that you aren't starting to hurt?"

"It's nothing I can't handle," Blaine replied. He was starting to feel the ache in his ribs, but Blaine wasn't going to admit that to Kurt. This was one situation where Blaine wasn't going to let the other boy be right.

"I'd be surprised if she didn't come pick you up by the end of the class period." Blaine looked up as the bell rang, sighing as he saw one of the office workers walk in with a blue slip that meant someone was being signed out to go home.

"Blaine." The older boy sighed as their French teacher held the slip of paper out for him to take.

"Told you."


	15. Future Plans

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee. If I did… well, I actually don't know how I would change any more because it seems like so many of the things I wanted to change about what was going on when I first started the fics either have changed or are changing!

**A/n: So this chapter is pretty much pure fluff. And I think this is where I'm going to end the story, because I like sappy-sweet endings.**

Kurt knocked on the front door of Blaine's grandparents' house, knowing that the older boy probably wasn't going to be in a good mood once Kurt got inside to see him.

"Hi, Kurt… I guess you're bringing Blaine's assignments?" Kurt nodded, smiling at Blaine's grandmother.

"Yes… although I don't think he's going to be too happy about it. He actually tried to come to school today…"

"Oh, I know. And I made his grandfather go right back to the school and pick him up as soon as I found out what happened. I can't believe he tried to pull that… I told Blaine last night that I didn't want him to go to school today because I didn't think he was ready."

"For the record, you were right. Santana and some of the other Glee clubbers were watching out for him, but he shouldn't have been there," Kurt replied. "I sort of forgot how hard-headed he could be at times."

"He gets it from his father. They butt heads a lot because of it… it's part of why things didn't go so well between the two of them when Blaine came out." Kurt shrugged, reaching into his bag. "Why don't you go ahead upstairs… Blaine went to lay down about an hour ago. He might be asleep, but you're welcome to stay as long as you want. Just make sure your parents know you're here. You're even welcome to stay for dinner if you'd like."

"Thanks, Mrs. Anderson. Hopefully he won't be in _too_ bad of a mood…"

"He wasn't very happy earlier. But I have a feeling he'll be in a better mood around you…. he usually is. The two of you sorting things out is probably the best thing that's happened to him lately." Kurt smiled.

"It's one of the best things that's happened to me lately, too." Kurt smiled at Blaine's grandmother again before he started up the stairs. He didn't know the Andersons' house as well as Blaine knew his place, but he knew it well enough to find his way back to Blaine's room.

Kurt didn't bother to knock on Blaine's door; he assumed that the older boy would probably be asleep, given the fact that he had a concussion and needed the rest. Kurt wasn't at all surprised that Blaine didn't wake up when he pushed the door open, despite the fact that it was in serious need of some WD-40. He left the door open, knowing that Blaine's grandparents might not like the idea of the two boys being alone in Blaine's room with the door closed. Even if Blaine wasn't really in a position to be doing anything that Kurt's father would consider "inappropriate."

Kurt put Blaine's homework on the desk in the room, kicking off his shoes and sitting down on the edge of Blaine's bed. He reached out and pushed the hair out of the older boy's face, laying down and silently watching his boyfriend sleep.

"Do you have to stare?" Blaine asked. Kurt smiled, even though the boy didn't open his eyes.

"How do you know I'm staring?"

"You just climbed on my bed and you haven't said anything. I'm pretty sure that you're staring at me as I sleep, because you would do that."

"Sir, are you implying that I'm a creeper?" Kurt asked, feigning shock at the thought.

"You called it, not me."

"Jerk."

"You're really going to insult your poor injured boyfriend?" Blaine asked. Kurt smirked at the way Blaine faked a pout. He leaned over Blaine and pressed a gentle kiss on the older boy's lips.

"You know you love me. And I'm madly in love with you," Kurt replied. He gently nuzzled against the uninjured side of Blaine's body, smiling at the way the boy still smelled like his shampoo even though it had probably been a while since Blaine had gotten a shower.

"I do love you. You brought my homework, didn't you?"

"Of course… I know that you would have freaked out on me if I hadn't brought it. Although I think you should rest instead of doing all of that homework. Your head isn't going to heal unless you take it easy." Kurt leaned over and pressed a kiss near the edge of a bandage that Kurt knew was covering stitches in Blaine's forehead. "When will they take the stitches out?"

"I have doctor's appointment Friday after school, I think. Or maybe it's Monday. The stitches will come out whenever I see the doctor again," Blaine replied. "Can we talk about something else? Something other than doctors or the fact that I'm currently covered in cuts and bruises?"

"Okay… what do you want to talk about, then?"

"How about you tell me about this week's glee assignment… that way I'm not too far behind, in case I get to come back to school before the week's out."

"I'm not sure that your grandmother is going to let you out of her sight for a while… especially not after what you tried to pull this morning," Kurt replied.

"She can't keep me at home forever…"

"She can make you stay home until you're actually healed. Which you should do anyway… it can't be good for you to be running all over the place." Kurt shifted positions, watching as Blaine winced slightly. "I'm sorry… are you okay?"

"I'm fine…"

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" Kurt asked. He hated the thought that he had hurt Blaine. Again.

"I'm fine, Kurt. My ribs just apparently don't like moving around very much… even when I'm not the one making them move."

"Is there anything I can do?" Kurt raised an eyebrow as Blaine smirked slightly.

"You could always kiss it better…" Kurt smiled and rolled his eyes, leaning over and pressing another kiss against his boyfriend's lips. He was gentle, doing his best to avoid putting any of his weight on Blaine. "_One_ kiss?"

"I don't want to over-stimulate you… besides, you're supposed to be taking it easy."

"I want you to kiss me…I said nothing about any other kind of stimulation. _Pervert_." Kurt smiled at Blaine's smirk and wink before he leaned in for another kiss.

"Fine… I'll kiss you. I'll kiss you as much as you want right now," Kurt replied. He continued kissing the older boy, smiling between kisses and gently squeezing Blaine's good hand.

"I love your kisses," Blaine commented. Kurt sighed, laying down next to his boyfriend. "You're stopping?"

"Just for a little while… I don't want to hurt you, but I can't hold myself up forever." Kurt brought the older boy's hand up to his face, kissing the back of it. "Do you want to watch a movie?"

"We can't do what I want to do right now," Blaine replied, forcing a pout. Kurt rolled his eyes, doing his best not to laugh at his boyfriend.

"And yet you call _me_ the pervert in this relationship…"

"I'm a guy… I have needs…"

"And I don't?" Kurt replied with a smirk. He leaned over and pressed yet another kiss on Blaine's lips. "You're silly."

"And slightly drugged… it helps me sleep."

"And you were in pain by the time you got home from school, weren't you?"

"Maybe a little…"

"How did you think you were going to make it through the whole day at school without pain medicine?" Kurt asked, whispering in the boy's ear.

"I don't really know… maybe I wasn't thinking about it. I was sort of more concerned about not missing classes than whether or not I was actually going to make it through the day." Kurt gently wrapped one of his arms around Blaine's middle.

"Think, okay? You aren't always going to have your grandparents to watch out for you. And if we don't end up at the same school, we won't even have each other to lean on…"

"I would follow you anywhere…"

"I don't want you to follow me. Not during college. I want you to be where you belong, where you're happy. If that puts us together then I'll be happy, but if that separates us then so be it."

"But what if what I want is for you to be happy? What if that's what will make me happy?" Blaine asked. Kurt leaned over and kissed his boyfriend one more time.

"We have time… it's only September. We need to fill out applications, but we'll still have time even after that to decide what we want to do."

"But the plan is still New York, right?"

"The plan is to be happy. That's all I want and all I care about now."

"I love you."

"I love you, too."


End file.
